Eni Aluko has called on Ian Wright to give up his job as a pundit in women’s football in order for her to get more opportunities on TV.
Speaking on the 90s Baby Show podcast last week, Aluko doubled down on her criticism of Wright’s involvement in the women’s game and hit out at ITV for not including her as a pundit for England’s win over Spain in the Euro 2025 final last summer.
Aluko had initially criticised Wright during an interview on BBC’s Woman’s Hour last April when she accused the former Arsenal and England striker of ‘blocking’ opportunities for female broadcasters on television and said that he is ‘dominating’ women’s football.
The 38-year-old subsequently issued an apology to Wright, which he did not accept.
In the second part of her appearance on the 90s Baby Show podcast which was released on Monday, Aluko accused Wright of not being an ‘ally’ and claims he ignored her plea to scale back his work for ITV in women’s football.
‘ITV, at the end of the men’s Euros, came to me and said we can’t extend your contract,’ Aluko said.
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‘I met with Ian’s agent, I had a face-to-face coffee with him. I met with him and said: ‘Listen, this is the situation, I can’t believe this is happening.’ I said: ‘They’ve told me that Ian is the priority, they’ve told me that his contract is the priority for them, and they’ve also said to me when Ian is not available, you might get a call-up.’
‘So I said, ‘how can we work together so I can stay in the game? How can we work together when Ian is not available, you give me a call or what can we do?’.
‘This is what I think black people should do, at the highest levels we need to strategise, we need to really help each other. We can get sidelined very quickly. I went to him and I was vulnerable, I said: ‘Listen, I need your help, I need Ian’s influence.’
‘I had that meeting with his agent, a month went by and I was like ‘what’s going on?’ so I messaged him and said: ‘Did you manage to have a chat with ITV?’ He was very dismissive, didn’t really want to help me, was a bit like: ‘Listen, it’s not going to work.’
‘I fully expected Ian to use his influence to keep me in the game. I’ve seen him do it with others, he did it with Gary Lineker at the BBC.
‘There’s nothing that would make me think he wouldn’t do that for me, because you’re the ally, you’re ‘Uncle’. So the question to you is, why didn’t he do that for me? I say all this to say, you don’t want to help me, you don’t want to use your influence, you don’t want to be an ally for me in the most difficult time in my career and that’s fine, that’s cool.
‘But nine months later, when I’ve been off screen and I’ve seen that you’re doing the games and you’ve cracked on, the fact of the matter is you have the level of influence to say: ‘I don’t need to do every game, what Eni means to women’s football is much more important than me doing all of these games. Eni is one of the main characters of women’s football, I know that this is bigger for her. It’s going to be harder for her to get this opportunity in men’s football.’
‘That’s what I expect from an ally – sacrifice. You can’t have it both ways, you can’t have this brand that says ally, that’s not my experience of you. When it comes down to it, you never really tried.’
Aluko has also issued a response to ITV presenter Laura Woods, who described Aluko’s suggestion that women’s football should only hire female broadcasters as ‘one of the most damaging phrases I’ve heard’.
‘I respect Laura’s opinion as I have always done,’ Aluko said in a statement to Daily Mail Sport.
‘For 11 years I have worked alongside the likes of Laura and all those considered the best pundits in the game. It’s therefore clear I was considered one of the best too if I was part of the same punditry team.
‘No one who has ever hired me as a pundit has said I wasn’t good enough or did not have all the attributes Laura referred to. Quite the contrary. I believe that women’s football should prioritise women as the faces of the sport – it’s as simple as that.
‘I think women should be the dominant force in the women’s game in the same way that men are the dominant force in the men’s game. That means men should play more of a supporting role.
‘No one is saying any man should be excluded but the roles do need to be defined. That’s all I’m saying – and people are quite free to disagree whilst respecting my right to an opinion too.’
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